CROSSWORD SETTER: Brendan Emmett QuigleyTHEME: Nosy Nonsense … today’s themed answers are common two-word phrases in which a Z sound has been added to the end of the first word, as in NO changing to NOSY:

Today's Wiki-est, Amazonian GoogliesAcross8. Isolated hill surrounded by lava : STEPTOE
Also called a dagala, a steptoe is a hill that has been surrounded by lava, like an island in the middle of the lava field. The landform takes its name from Steptoe Butte, which is a protrusion above lava flows on the Columbia Plateau near Colfax, Washington.

23. She "speaks things in doubt, / That carry but half sense" : OPHELIA
In William Shakespeare's "Hamlet", Ophelia is courted by Hamlet, the man himself. Ophelia is the daughter of nobleman Polonius. She dies ...

40. Haitian couple : DEUX
“Deux” is French for “two”.

The Republic of Haiti occupies the smaller, western portion of the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean. The rest of the island is taken up by the Dominican Republic. Haiti is one of only two nations in the Americas to have French as an official language, the other being Canada.

47. "L'Arlésienne" composer : BIZET
Georg Bizet was a French composer active in the Romantic era. Bizet's most famous work has to be his opera "Carmen". "Carmen" initially received a lukewarm reception from the public, even though his fellow composers had nothing but praise for it. Sadly Bizet died at only 36 years of age, before he could see "Carmen's" tremendous success.

"L'Arlésienne" is the name given to two orchestral suites composed by Georges Bizet. The pieces were written as incidental music for the play "L'Arlésienne" by Alphonse Daudet. The name "L'Arlésienne" is usually translated from French as “The Girl from Arles”.

49. Lake ___ (Australia's lowest point) : EYRE
Lake Eyre is located in the deserts of central Australia. At 49 feet below sea level, Lake Eyre is the lowest point in the whole country.

57. Spanish bear : OSO
In Spanish, "osa" is a female bear, and "oso" is a male.

61. Narrow land projections into the sea : SPITS
A spit is a sandy projection into the sea that has been formed by deposition. The term comes from the pointed rod used for raosting meat, also called a spit.

64. Billet-doux recipient : DEAREST
Billet-doux is a French term for a love letter. A "billet" is a short note, and "doux" means sweet.

67. Orbit rival : DENTYNE
Dentyne chewing gum was formulated back in 1899 by a druggist in New York called Franklin Canning. He came up with the name of his new gum by combining the words “dental” and “hygiene”.

73. Carefree dairy product? : BREEZY CHEESE (from “brie cheese”)
Brie is a soft cheese, named after the French region from which it originated. Brie is similar to the equally famous (and delicious) camembert.

80. Radiohead head Yorke : THOM
Radiohead is an alternative rock band from England, formed in 1985.

84. It covers Hector's death : ILIAD
The Iliad is an epic poem by the Greek poet Homer, which tells the story of the siege of Ilium (also known as Troy) during the Trojan war.

As described in Homer's "Iliad", Hector was a Trojan prince and a great fighter. During the war with the Greeks, in order avoid a bloody battle, Hector challenged any one of the Greek warriors to a duel. Ajax was chosen by the Greeks, and the two fought for an entire day before they declared a stalemate.

86. Continental free trade group : EUROMART
“Euromart” is an informal name that was applied to the European Economic Community.

The European Economic Community (EEC) was also called "the Common Market". The EEC was a NAFTA-like structure that was eventually absorbed into today's European Union.

92. F.S.U. player, for short : ‘NOLE
Florida State University (FSU) is located in Tallahassee, the state capital of Florida. The school’s athletic teams are known as the Seminoles (sometimes “the ‘Noles”). The team name was chosen in 1947 by the students in a vote, and alludes to the Seminole people who originally lived in the state. Most of the Seminole now live in Oklahoma, after their forced relocation by the US government in the 1840s.

93. Bright red : CERISE
The red color that we know as “cerise” takes its name from “cerise”, the French word for “cherry”.

99. Reconstruction-era cartoonist : NAST
Thomas Nast was an American caricaturist and cartoonist. He was the creator of the Republican Party elephant, the Democratic Party's donkey, Uncle Sam and the image of the plump and jocular Santa Claus that we use today.

103. Marvel from Idaho's largest city? : BOISE WONDER (from “boy wonder”)
Boise, Idaho is the largest metropolitan area in the state by far. There are a number of stories pertaining to the etymology of the name “Boise”. One is that French trappers named the tree-lined river that ran through the area “la rivière boisée”, meaning “the wooded river”.

A "boy wonder" is a male who rises through the ranks early in his career. The term is also a nickname given to Batman’s sidekick Robin the Boy Wonder.

110. Kind of seat : CATBIRD
The idiomatic phrase “the catbird seat” is used to describe an enviable position in which one has the upper hand. The first documented use of the expression is in a 1942 story by James Thurber called “The Catbird Seat”.

113. It's bigger than a family : ORDER
Biological classification is a method used to group organisms by biological type. The method uses a hierarchy of nested classes, with an organism being classified with reference to evolutionary traits. The major taxonomic ranks used are:

114. Slalom, for one : SKI RACE
Slalom is an anglicized version of the Norwegian word "slalam" that translates as "skiing race".

115. Winston's home in "1984" : OCEANIA
The action in George Orwell's 1949 novel "Nineteen Eighty-Four" takes place in the intercontinental super-state of Oceania. Orwell also created two other super-states, Eurasia and Eastasia.

George Orwell’s famous novel actually has the title “Nineteen Eighty-Four” (as opposed to "1984"), with the date spelled out.

116. Snapchat demographic : TEENS
Snapchat is a messaging system that allows users to send photos and video clips to a limited list of recipients. The photos and clips, called “snaps”, can be viewed for only a few seconds before they are deleted from the recipient’s device and from teh Snapchat servers.

Down1. Kind of pyramid : FOOD
The first food guide pyramid was issued in 1974, in Sweden. The food pyramid that we’re most familiar with in this country is the one published by the USDA in 1992, which was replaced in 2011. Instead of a pyramid, we now have a guide called MyPlate. MyPlate urges us to eat about 30% grains, 30% vegetables, 20% fruits, 20% proteins on our plates, accompanied by a small serving of dairy.

2. TV's Kelly : RIPA
When Kelly Ripa secured the co-host spot on morning television with Regis Philbin, she was still acting in "All My Children" in a role she had been playing for over ten years. After a year of holding down two jobs, she eventually gave up the acting job.

3. Educ. book category : ELHI
"Elhi" is an informal word used to describe anything related to schooling from grades 1 through 12, i.e. elementary through high school.

4. "___ Like the Wind" (song from "Dirty Dancing") : SHE’S
"She's Like the Wind" is a 1987 song from the soundtrack of the film “Dirty Dancing” that was performed by Patrick Swayze. The song was co-written by Swayze, and originally intended for the film “Grandview, U.S.A.” but it was never used. Swayze played a demo for the producer and director of “Dirty Dancing” and they loved it, so it ended up on the movie’s soundtrack and even hit the number three spot in the charts.

8. Missile name : SCUD
Scud missiles were developed by the Soviet Union during the Cold War. The Soviets called them R-11 missiles at first, with later versions known as R-17 and R-300 Elbrus. The name "Scud" was actually the name NATO used for the missile, a name created by Western intelligence officers. Ballistic missiles haven't been used a lot in actual warfare, the exception being the German V-2 rocket attacks on England during WWII. After the V-2, the second most-used ballistic missile in warfare is the Scud, which featured in a number of conflicts:

- used by Egypt against Israel in the Yom Kippur War of 1973
- used by the USSR in Afghanistan
- used by Libya against a US Coast Guard station in the Mediterranean in 1986
- used by Iranians and Iraqis in the Iran-Iraq War of 1980-88
- used by Iraq in the Gulf War of 1990-91

11. Polish leader? : PEE
The leading letter in the word “Polish” is a letter P (pee).

14. Canadian business often connected to a Tim Hortons : ESSO
Tim Hortons is a Canadian chain of fast food restaurants that is known especially for its coffee and doughnuts. The chain is named for one of the founders, hockey player Tim Horton.

16. Talking points? : LARYNXES
The voice box or larynx is where pitch and volume of sound are manipulated when we talk.

17. "Un Ballo in Maschera" aria : ERI TU
The aria "Eri tu" is from Verdi's opera "Un ballo in maschera" (A Masked Ball). The opera tells the story of the assassination of King Gustav III of Sweden during a masked ball.

34. Heat alerts, for short? : APBS
An All Points Bulletin (APB) is a broadcast from one US law enforcement agency to another.

39. Hoosier capital, informally : INDY
Indianapolis is the largest city in Indiana, and is the state capital. The state of Indiana was formed in 1816, with the state capitol being named as Corydon. The capital was changed to Indianapolis in 1825. Indianapolis is the closest of all capitals to the center of its state.

The exact origin of the word "Hoosier" is unknown, but has been around since at least 1830. The term had no direct linkage with Indiana until John Finley of Richmond, Indiana wrote a poem called "The Hoosier's Nest" in 1833. A few years later by 1840 it was generally accepted as a term for Indiana residents.

40. Detective writer Earl ___ Biggers : DERR
Charlie Chan is the main character in a series of novels by Earl Derr Biggers. Chan is a Chinese-American detective working with the Honolulu police department. There have been almost 50 movies made featuring the Charlie Chan character.

44. Sports score most likely to be on the highlight reel? : DOOZY POINT (from “dew point”)
The dew point is a temperature, the temperature to which humid air must be cooled in order for water vapor to condense. We call the condensed water "dew".

45. Actress Elizabeth with older twins : OLSEN
Elizabeth Olsen is an actress and singer, and the younger sister of the famed Olsen twins Mary-Kate and Ashley.

I don't know very much about the actresses and TV personalities called the Olsen twins. I am told that folks believe Mary-Kate and Ashley to be identical twins. They look very much alike, but are in fact just fraternal twins.

46. Fagin's end : NOOSE
Fagin is the colorful antagonist in the Charles Dickens novel “Oliver Twist”. Fagin leads a band of children who earn their keep by picking pockets and committing other petty crimes. Fagin’s most successful pickpocket is the Artful Dodger.

53. CBS series that, oddly, was filmed in L.A. : CSI: NY
The “CSI” franchise of TV shows has been tremendously successful, but seems to be winding down. “CSI: Miami” (the “worst” of the franchise, I think) was cancelled in 2012 after ten seasons. “CSI: NY” (the “best” of the franchise) was cancelled in 2013 after nine seasons. The original “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation”, set in Las Vegas, is still going strong and has been doing so since 2000.

55. Sen. McConnell : MITCH
Senator Mitch McConnell is a Republican Senator and is currently the Minority Leader in the US Senate. McConnell is married to Elaine Chao who served as Secretary of Labor in the Cabinet of President George W. Bush.

56. "Downton Abbey" maid : EDNA
Edna Braithwaite was a general maid at Downton Abbey who leaves and returns in the storyline as a lady’s maid.

Fans of the wonderful TV drama “Downton Abbey” will be very familiar with the exterior appearance of Highclere Castle in Hampshire. Highclere is used as the location for exterior and many interior shots of the fictitious Grantham residence called Downton Abbey. The exterior of Highclere is very reminiscent of the Houses of Parliament building in London. That similarity exists because the house was largely rebuilt from 1839 to 1842 by architect Sir Charles Barry soon after he finished work on the refurbished Houses of Parliament.

60. "Sherlock" channel, affectionately, with "the" : BEEB
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is also known as "the Beeb", a name given to the network by the great Peter Sellers on the classic British radio comedy called "The Goon Show". The BBC was founded in 1922, and was the world’s first national broadcasting organization.

If you’ve seen the American television show “Elementary”, you will know that it is an adaptation of the classic tales by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle that are set in the present day. “Elementary” is similar in look and feel to the excellent BBC series “Sherlock”, which stars Benedict Cumberbatch as a modern-day Holmes. We can pick up “Sherlock” in some parts of the country as part of “Masterpiece Mystery” on PBS.

64. "De Monarchia" writer : DANTE
"De Monarchia" is a treatise written by Dante Alighieri in 1312-1313. In the work, Dante addresses the struggle for power between the secular authority (the Holy Roman Empire) and the religious authority (the Pope).

65. He discusses divine providence in Job : ELIHU
In the Bible’s Book of Job, Elihu is described as a friend of Job.

66. Labyrinthine : MAZY
A labyrinth is another word for a maze, and is named after the maze in which the Minotaur was confined in Greek Mythology.

67. An Arnaz : DESI
Desi Arnaz was of course famous for his turbulent marriage to Lucille Ball. Arnaz was a native of Cuba, and was from a privileged family. His father was Mayor of Santiago and served in the Cuban House of Representatives. However, the family had to flee to Miami after the 1933 revolt led by Batista.

74. Venice's oldest bridge : RIALTO
The Grand Canal is a large, S-shaped canal that traverses the city of Venice in Italy. For centuries there was only one bridge across the canal, the famed Rialto Bridge. Now there are four bridges in all, including a controversial structure that was opened to the public in 2008, the Ponte della Costituzione.

75. "Fûmes" is a form of it : ETRE
The “passé simple” is a tense in French that is used mainly in formal writing. The “passé simple” is a past tense, one that is divorced from the present meaning that the verb describes something that has happened in the past and has definitely been completed. The “passé simple” for the verb “être” meaning “to be” is: “je fus, tu fus, il fut, nous fûmes, vous fûtes, ils furent”.

76. Birds with inflatable neck sacs : EMUS
The large flightless birds called emus make sounds by manipulating inflatable necks sacs. The sac is about a foot long, has a thin wall and allows the bird to emit a booming sound. The type of sound emitted is the easiest way to differentiate between male and female emus.

78. "I ___ Hamlet" (Paul Rudnick play) : HATE
Paul Rudnick is a playwright and screenwriter living in New York City. One of Rudnick’s plays is “I Hate Hamlet”, which became famous when one of the actors fought a duel with a co-star on stage that became a little too realistic.

84. Brand of gloves and slippers : ISOTONER
Totes Isotoner is based in Cincinnati, Ohio. The company is the world’s largest supplier of umbrellas and other rainwear items. Isotoner is also famous for its lines of gloves and slippers.

87. Concertgoers who are into the hits? : MOSHERS
Moshing (also “slam dancing”) is the pushing and shoving that takes place in the audience at a concert (usually a punk or heavy metal concert). The area directly in front of the stage is known as the mosh pit. When a performer does a "stage dive" it is into (or I suppose "onto") the mosh pit. It doesn't sound like fun to me. Injuries are commonplace in the mosh pit, and deaths are not unknown.

88. Rice paper?: Abbr. : DEG
Rice University is a private school in Houston, Texas. William Marsh Rice had made a will endowing the funds for the establishment of the school at the time of his death. When he was found dead one morning in his bed, his lawyer announced that his will had been changed, with the bulk of Rice’s estate actually going to the lawyer making the announcement. Upon investigation, it was discovered that the lawyer had paid Rice’s valet to murder his employer using chloroform and a fake will was written. Eventually the original will was deemed valid, and the funds were disbursed so that the school could be built.

89. Desert steed : ARABIAN
The Arab (or Arabian) breed of horse takes its name from its original home, the Arabian Peninsula. Like any animal that humans have over-bred, the horse falls prey to genetic diseases, some of which are fatal and some of which require the horse to be euthanized.

90. One of the Balearic Islands : MINORCA
The island of Minorca in the Mediterranean takes its name from the larger neighboring island of Majorca. The names come from the Latin “Insula Minor” meaning “Minor Island” and “Insula Major” meaning “Major Island”. The island is known as “Minorca” in English, and “Menorca” in Spanish and Catalan.

The Balearic Islands form an archipelago in the western Mediterranean of the east coast of Spain. The Balearics are made up up four main islands: Ibiza and Formentera (aka “the Pine Islands”), Majorca and Minorca.

91. County seat of Suffolk, England : IPSWICH
Ipswich is the county town of Suffolk in the south of England. Ipswich is an ancient town, but has achieved notoriety in recent times as well. There was a rash of killings in 2006 by the "Ipswich murderer" who killed five prostitutes before being brought to justice. Ipswich is also home to the world's heaviest man, weighing in at 980 pounds.

93. Stupid sort : CRETIN
“Cretin” is a slang term meaning “idiot”, and is a term that I do not like at all. “Cretin” was a medical term in the 1900s that derived from Alpine French dialect. Congenital hypothyroidism was particularly associated with an area in the French Alps and manifested itself as impaired physical and mental development, a condition known as "cretinism".

95. Specialized talk : ARGOT
"Argot" is a French term, the name given in the 17th century to "the jargon of the Paris underworld". Nowadays argot is the set of idioms used by any particular group, the "lingo" of that group.

96. 2014 Baseball Hall of Fame inductee : TORRE
As a manager, Joe Torre was part of four World Series wins, all of them with the New York Yankees baseball team. Torre is an Italian American who was born in Brooklyn, New York. During the run up (pun intended!) to the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Torre carried the Olympic flame part of the way through Florence in Italy, handing it over to the next runner at the famous Ponte Vecchio. I'd guess that was quite a thrill for him ...

97. The Beatles' "P.S. I Love You," e.g. : B-SIDE
“P.S. I Love You” was recorded by the Beatles way back in 1962. On the recording, Ringo Starr is playing the maracas, not the drums. A session musician played the drums, replacing Pete Best who had just been fired by Brian Epstein. Ringo had not yet been “anointed” as Best’s replacement.

98. Honshu port : OSAKA
The Japanese city of Osaka used to be called Naniwa, with the name changing to Osaka some time before 1500. "Osaka" can be translated either as "large hill" or "large slope".

Honshu is the largest island in Japan, with the name “Honshu” translating as “Main Island”. Honshu is the seventh largest island in the world. As it is home to the principal cities in Japan, Honshu is also the second most populous island on the planet (after Java, in Indonesia).

100. "The Two Pots" storyteller : AESOP
Aesop is remembered today for his famous fables. Aesop lived in Ancient Greece, probably around the sixth century BC. Supposedly he was born a slave, somehow became a free man, but then met with a sorry end. Aesop was sent to the city of Delphi on a diplomatic mission but instead insulted the Delphians. He was tried on a trumped-up charge of stealing from a temple, sentenced to death and was thrown off a cliff.

Aesop’s fable of “The Two Pots” is about two containers, one metal and one earthenware. The pots are being swept along a river and the metal one wants to travel together. The earthenware pot wants to travel alone for fear of being crashed into and broken by the metal pot. The story preaches the moral that equal partnership is best.

102. College up the coast from L.A. : UCSB
The University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) is one of the 10 campuses in the UC system. UCSB joined the UC system in 1944, although the school was founded as a teachers’ college in 1891.

104. March time : IDES
There were three important days in each month of the old Roman calendar. These days originally depended on the cycles of the moon but were eventually "fixed" by law. "Kalendae" were the first days of each month, originally the days of the new moon. "Nonae" were originally the days of the half moon. And "idus" (the ides) was originally the day of the full moon, eventually fixed at the 15th day of a month. Well, actually the ides were the 15th day of March, May, July and October. For all other months, the ides fell on the 13th. Go figure ...

Julius Caesar was assassinated on the 15th (the ides) of March, 44 BC. He was attacked by a group of sixty people in the Roman Senate, and was stabbed 23 times. The first to strike a blow was Servilius Casca, who attacked Caesar from behind and stabbed him in the neck.

105. Certain tourney overseer : NCAA
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) dates back to the Presidency of Theodore Roosevelt. When his son broke his nose playing football at Harvard, President Roosevelt turned his attention to the number of serious injuries and even deaths occurring in college sports. He instigated meetings between the major educational institutions leading to the formation of the Intercollegiate Athletic Association of the United States (IAAUS) in 1906, which was given the remit of regulating college sports. The IAAUS became the NCAA in 1910.

107. City near Presque Isle State Park : ERIE
Presque Isle State Park is off the coast of Erie, Pennsylvania and sits on a peninsula that juts out into Lake Erie. The name “Presque Isle” translates from French as “peninsula”, or more literally “almost an island”.

4 comments
:

Anonymous
said...

The passé simple tense in French is also known as the past historic tense, which is the name I learned for it in high school French 53 years ago. You had one form wrong: you (s.) is tu fus, not tu es.Bill FairchildNolensville, TN

Very much appreciate your explanations generally, but "Elementary" is not a remake of the BBC "Sherlock" but a completely different and also excellent retelling of the Sherlock Holmes story. Also, "oye" is definitely Spanish - not sure about Italian (Lucia a common name in both).

Re "Elementary"I was surprised to discover, after reading your comment, that the US show is not in fact a sanctioned remake of the BBC's "Sherlock". That said, I also discovered the producers of "Sherlock" are unhappy about the airing of "Elementary" without credit to the UK show, due to the similar premise (a contemporary retelling of the "Sherlock Holmes" stories). Anyway, I'll change my comment in the post.

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About This Blog

This is the simplest of blogs.

I do the New York Times puzzle online every evening, the night before it is published in the paper. Then, I "Google & Wiki" the references that puzzle me, or that I find of interest. I post my findings, along with the solution, as soon as I am done, usually well before the newsprint version becomes available.

About Me

The name's William Ernest Butler, but please call me Bill. I grew up in Ireland, but now live out here in the San Francisco Bay Area. I am retired, from technology businesses that took our family all over the world.

Crosswords and My Dad

I worked on my first crossword puzzle when I was about 6-years-old, sitting on my Dad's knee. He let me "help" him with his puzzle almost every day as I was growing up. Over the years, Dad passed on to me his addiction to crosswords. Now in my early 50s, I work on my Irish Times and New York Times puzzles every day. I'm no longer sitting on my Dad's knee, but I feel that he is there with me, looking over my shoulder.

This blog is dedicated to my Dad, who passed away at the beginning of this month.